Mary Lou Martell put it off as long as she could. But she finally had to head to Memphis for an anniversary watch at Elvis Presley's grave.
"It's my first base Elvis Week. I'm a little ashamed to state that, but it is," Martell, 60, said as she took part in a candle flame procession to Presley's grave accent at Graceland, his former Memphis residence. "We watched it on the computing machine last year and I finally said, `I have to be part of that.'"
The procession, called the "Candlelight Vigil," drew respective thousand Elvis fans wHO lined up in the street in front of Graceland for a file procession up a long, winding drive to his grave in a modest garden.
Fans weren't scared away by an intermittent drizzle during the vigil, which began at 9:30 p.m. EDT.
"We're doing fine," Martell said, peeping out from the hood of a plastic anorak. "It's just for Elvis we appease out doing this."
The watch, which runs into the early morn, is the highlight of a weeklong series of fan-club meetings, dances and Elvis-impersonator contests to commemorate the day of remembrance of his death. He died of heart disease and drug abuse at Graceland on Aug. 16, 1977. He was 42.
Martell of Dunkirk, N.Y., aforementioned she visits Graceland ofttimes but avoided Elvis Week in the past because of the crowds. She came early for her first graveside vigil, though, setting up a lawn chair at 9 a.m. at Graceland's front gates.
Many Elvis pilgrims return each year, and the graveside vigil draws visitors from around the universe. But it's largely unheeded by Memphis residents.
Jennifer Hobson, 29, of Memphis and a mathematical group of hometown friends formed a "Blue Hawaii" club to render to change that and sent extinct vigil invitations to their friends.
The group set up a modest canvas canopy in the street in front of Graceland and decorated it with inflatable palm trees, blue lights and an Elvis raid sporting a blue lei.
"This is region of our city," Hobson said, "just when we come down here, we rarely determine people we know. Y'all need to come out."
Hobson said the group had to forget some decorations at place because of the rain.
"I have a velvet Elvis, but because of the rain we couldn't bring out all of our good stuff," Hobson said.
Graceland supports a sprawling complex of relic shops, and fans wait for the procession packed the stores pouring over Viva Las Vegas bobble head dolls for $19.99, Burning Love scented candles for $14.99, Jailhouse Rock T-shirts for $24.99 and hundreds of other Elvis-flavored gifts and do-dads.
Nancy Rooks, a former Graceland cook, was set up at a souvenir shop at table to sell her book, "Elvis' Maid Remembers," and speak with fans.
Generally, the 71-year-old Rooks aforementioned, the fans ask about Elvis' personal habits, when he went to bed, when he got up, what he liked to eat.
"I tell them he ate breakfast at 5 o'clock in the afternoon, but so he'd eat dinner at 1 o'clock at night," she said. "We always had a meat loaf cooked, exactly in event he wanted it. If he didn't want meat loaf, then we knew to give him joint beef. He liked psyche food."
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